Thursday, 17 April 2008

Migraine sufferers 'have increased risk of heart attacks and strokes'

"Millions of people who suffer from migraines have a greatly increased risk of suffering heart attacks and strokes, according to new research.

People who have the debilitating headaches just once a month are one and a half times more likely to go on to suffer a heart attack.

Those who have a migraine once a week are three times more likely to have a stroke than those who don’t suffer, the Harvard Medical School study found.

Around nine million people in the UK suffer from migraines and 80 per cent of those - some 7.2 million - have an attack at least once a month.

The findings of the study, which is one of the first to make a link between the frequency of migraines and serious illness, could lead to increased monitoring of migraine sufferers and preventative treatment to reduce the risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

Dr Tobias Kurth, from Harvard Medical School in Boston, who led the study, said: “Our findings suggest that migraine frequency may be an indicator for increased risk of cardiovascular disease, particularly ischaemic stroke.""

Well I've been linking migraines with strokes and heart attacks and other serious illnesses for years. - The risk of and severity of all of these health problems (which are all connected to weakened blood vessels) are reduced or eliminated by avoiding salt and salty food.